Saving Sparrow
by Kania09
Summary: Post DMC. Elizabeth, Will and Barbossa sail to the end of the world to save Jack. They have to battle more then monsters though, They have to battle their own fears. Secrets are revealed and new characters brought into play as they complete their journey.
1. How it started

A/N: This takes place almost imediatly after the end of DMC, and is from Elizabeths point of view.

Chapter 1: Personal Demons

"Jack Sparrow." She mumbled slurring the words as she stumbled around below deck. It came out more like 'Jackkkkk Spawoah'.

She moved blindly around the dark room, the only light coming from a small window high on the wall. In her current state it did not help at all. She maneuvered carefully around the room, conscious of the rum bottle in one hand. She didn't want to smash it after all. It was all that helped these days. She continued to feel and stumble her way around the room until her hand came to rest upon a crate. Leaning against it, she used it to hold her upright. She surveyed her surroundings bitterly. She didn't even know what room of the ship she was currently in. It looked like a storage room more then anything. She bet that Jack would keep his rum in a room like this.

No, it was _Cap'n_ Jack Sparrow, she reminded herself bitterly, raising the bottle to her lips to take another swallow of rum. The man always was insistent about having that affixed in front of his name. She snorted; it wasn't as if he deserved it. As she snorted she realized she had not swallowed the rum in her mouth yet. Some rum flew out her nose and she coughed and sputtered as the rest of the strong liquid coursed down her throat. She had always thought the more rum you drank, the less you could taste. She had been wrong. The taste and smell seemed to be intensifying as she drank more. The bottle was half done, but that did not register in her mind.

As she was again bringing the bottle unwisely back to her lips, the ship lurched violently, sending Elizabeth flying away from the crate she had been leaning on. She bounced off a wall before landing face down in a pitiful heap on the dirty floor. She cursed, by now knowing that they had dropped anchor. She hauled herself up, looking around for the bottle that had moments ago been in her hand. Looking around in the dim light she saw that it had smashed harmlessly against a different wall, the precious liquid now seeping out of the remains of the bottle and onto the floor.

She pulled herself into a sitting position, leaning against the wall which in her drunken mind she figured would be more stable then the crate. Her eyes instinctively looked for the trail the rum was making as it made its way across the floor. She frowned, wondering if there was anyway she could stop it from being wasted. The only rational part of her mind left demanded she dismiss the thought; after all she had been brought up a lady.

For a moment she couldn't remember why she was drinking the rum to begin with but then it came back. She had thought the rum would calm her, dull the pain and make her forget. Instead it only made her angry at Jack for doing this to her. In her mind it was Jacks fault that she was the drunken mess she was now. If he hadn't made her do what she did, he would still be alive, and she wouldn't be guilty of killing him. He was an infuriating, confusing, vile man. She found it impossible to move on and forget what she had done. Every time she looked at Will she thought of Jack and what she had not yet told him. Damn Jack for making her guilty and unable to be happy! The tears started to stain her cheeks and she made no effort to stop them; letting them come. More often then not these days' tears seemed to stain her cheeks. Another reason she was alone now. The crew probably thought she was weak, just another woman. And as for Will, well he was treating her as though she was made of glass. She looked bitterly over at the remains of the bottle. It wasn't as though she could shatter as easily as that. Again she cursed Jack under her breath. She was so confused, but she knew one thing for sure in the rational part of her mind.

She didn't want him back.

Here she was, not wanting a thing to do with Jack, yet on her way to save him. They were on the _Ghost_. It was Barbossa's ship of choice for the journey. She supposed he had chosen it for its resemblance of the _Black Pearl_ which was gone. It was just as grimy as the _Pearl_. Well, while everyone else was above deck, she was sitting here in the poorly lit storage room feeling sorry for herself and blaming Jack for everything that she felt. It seemed every time she swore she was done with pirates, another quest or adventure popped up.

God only knew why she had agreed to go after him with everyone else. Maybe it was because Will was going; maybe it was the thrill of another adventure; perhaps because she felt guilty about leaving him stranded on the Pearl; maybe it was because she couldn't imagine returning to Port Royale alone. Or maybe it was because some part of her wanted him back.

She snorted softly; she didn't want him back she was sure of that. In her head she knew he didn't need to be back in her life, it was easier without him; and that she was perfectly happy. Trying telling her heart that though. Her head told her she would one day be able to look at Will without thinking of Jack, she would be able to marry and be happy, and she would be able to forget what she had done to him. Her heart on the other hand insisted that she needed to see him one last time, to say she was sorry for everything. She firmly pushed that part of her away, she would not have the chance to talk to him again; she reminded herself. He was dead.

It was all well and good for her to say she didn't care about him at all when she thought he was dead. Death seemed to simplify things. It gave you fewer options to choose from and you could trick your mind to believe one thing when really your heart believed another. Jack being dead meant that logically she had to love Will, seeing as it was pointless to love Jack in death. She was young and did not want to spend her time mourning for the dead. She wanted to live. Although he had swept into her life, and sparked a flame in her she didn't know could exist. Now that he was dead though, she had to convince herself of that she didn't love Jack; and a few weeks ago she had been perfectly happy to accept that she belonged with Will. Ever since Tia Dalma had said he could be saved, things had changed once more.

Now though, she had to face the very real possibility that he was coming back again.

She didn't want to face it though. That was why she was down in the storage room drowning her sorrows with rum, to avoid a decision. She smiled bitterly to herself in the gloomy darkness; it seemed even in death or whatever it was; that she could not escape Jacks influence on her life. If she accepted that he was back, then she would have more options; options such as choosing Jack or Will.

Before death had made a choice for her, she just had to accept it.

And accept it she had; until now that is. Now she did not know what she wanted. She cursed Tia Dalma for giving her an option. She wanted someone to make the choice for her! Her mind told her that she wanted Will; he could support her, wouldn't leave her and loved her and be faithful. He was a good man. Most of her heart agreed with her head to, except for a small part of her that wanted Jack. She didn't know why seeing as he was a cheating vile thief but most of all a pirate. Jack well…Jack had his whores. He would leave her without a second thought, without regret; so why did she want that?

She didn't know.

If it came right down to it, she supposed she was scared, scared of Captain Jack Sparrow. She was scared of how she felt around him; acted around him. It was like her head had taken a holiday and left the rest of her body to do the thinking with hormones. She was scared that she liked him more then Will; that she would choose Jack over him.

"_You'll come around…you know why? Because of curiosity."_

That was when it had started when they had talked about curiosity on the _Pearl._ He had made her curious, she hated to admit and she hadn't stopped thinking about him completely since then. She was curious about his life, and some part of her wanted to experience it for herself. Jack did not try to protect her the way Will did, he knew she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself. It seemed the more time she had spent with Jack on the _Pearl;_ the more she came to trust him.

She hit her fist on the ground, not doing any damage to the ship but instead to her hand. Cradling it to her body she let her thoughts run wild. He made her so angry; angry that she felt this way about him. She didn't want to. This wasn't how it was supposed to be. She was supposed to be married by now! Not on another bloody pirate ship. She should have been in her new house, been attending fancy dinner parties with Will; taking care of a household.

"_Remember that you robbed me of my wedding night."_

The words that she had stated so calmly to the Lord Beckett came back to her now. At the time they had been meaningless words, said in the heat of the moment to get the man to sign the letters of mark. Now they held meaning. She wondered what would have happened had her and Will had her wedding night; if they had been dragged into this adventure a day later. Surely she would be blissfully in love with Will, too enamored to see Jacks charm. Elizabeth bet that she wouldn't have fallen for Jacks charm if things had started a day later. Or if they had not been arrested at all.

Getting arrested had changed her. In their first adventure on the Pearl, she had thought that she was better then the pirates; oh Elizabeth would not have admitted it, but she did. She carried herself and treated them in a way that showed that she thought them lower then her. Being arrested had made her realize that perhaps they weren't so different. After all they got arrested, and so did she. Pirates were men who had no other choice in life really, they wanted their freedom as much as the next man and just had to go by other means of obtaining it. She had obtained her freedom to, just not legally. She had got hers by holding a man at gunpoint. Elizabeth had escaped from prison, found Jack, sailed on two ships; all to find Will. The experience had changed her.

She had become a Pirate.

She admitted it now. She did not know if she wanted a quiet life anymore. In fact she found it downright thrilling to be reveling in her freedom knowing that there were people in Port Royal who would kill her. She got a rush from helping the crew, who she actually found to be quite civilized. They were as ordinary as her, not the mangy pirates she had thought of them originally. Well, not quite as mangy. She knew more about hygiene then they ever would.

She thought that if she ever did settle, it would have to be near an ocean. She was different, she craved the adventure now. She just did not want to be on the adventure that she was currently in.

It was bad enough going to find Jack and becoming confused again; having decisions to make. It was all the worse knowing that it was Barbossa who would bring them to Jack. Barbossa disgusted her; he went against the Pirates code. Most had morals, but he had none. She refused to be alone with the man as she didn't trust him. He had almost been responsible for her death once; but it wouldn't be twice. She knew he would kill without thinking of the regrets. She knew that he would not think about how he had condemned someone to death.

Will on the other hand was always with Barbossa it seemed. He had taken to him right away, spending far more time with him then any other members of the crew. Last she had checked they were talking in hushed tones up at the helm. Will was currently navigating for them with Jacks compass. Will had obtained the compass from Jack shortly before his death. For some reason the compass pointed at Jack. What Elizabeth did not understand was why would the thing that Will wanted most be Jack?

Maybe Jack was right and he was a Eunuch.

She laughed softly to herself, knowing even as she thought it that it wasn't true. If he was her choice would be a lot easier to make. Will had asked her why she had agreed to find Jack; she hoped not out of suspicion about the kiss (which he surprisingly had not talked to her about). She had replied that she wanted some questions answered, and she did. She wanted to know why he came back.

She sighed; a pounding headache would soon be setting in but for now she could feel the rum she had consumed wearing off. At least she thought it was wearing off. She couldn't know for certain as she had never been this drunk before. She had found it easier to think when she was drunk, the thoughts came easier into her mind and she did not over analyze everything. Maybe she was developing a love for the drink that she had formerly thought vile.

Speaking of things being vile, James Norrington had surprised them all. She had always thought him to be an upstanding, respectable man. Sure he was not in the best of shape when Elizabeth had met him in Tortuga all those weeks ago. He had lost his job, his home and his dignity, but yet she pitied him and helped him out…after knocking him out that was. He had even sacrificed himself on the island to save all of them, or so they thought.

Word had reached their ship about him when they had landed in Tortuga to stock up on supplies. Word was they he had somehow managed to get off that god forsaken island and had gotten back to Lord Beckett with the heart. Rumor had it that he now had his old life back. She despised that man now she had not known him to be so selfish. She also had not thought that he would sink so low as to turn on them all.

"James Norrington has become a vile man."

"I agree" A voice boomed out of the darkness; one that she recognized instantly.

"Will, why are you down here?" she managed to stand up and not slur her words. She could not completely hide the wobble in her steps however.

"Came to bring you up onto deck." He answered. "One of the crew members saw you wander down here."

She walked towards him in the darkness, to where he stood silhouetted in the dimly lit doorway. He turned to allow her past so she could go up the stairs first. She tried to make it up the stairs as steadily as she could without betraying that she had been drinking. She didn't feel comfortable with him knowing that for some reason.

Well, Elizabeth figured, musing to herself once again. Since I'm a pirate I might as well abide by their code. A large part of the pirates code was to live each day as your last, and look ahead to today, not to tomorrow. She simply wouldn't think of the future until she had to. Who knows; she might not even feel the same way about Jack when she saw him again. Hell, she knew she liked Will a lot right now but that he also infuriated her by treating her so delicately. So why bother bringing Jack in to complicated things until it were necessary?

She wasn't happy with life, not by a long shot. Living each day for the day seemed the best solution she could come up with. And if she happened to like Jack when they found him, then she would sort out her feelings then. If she chose him over Will, then she owed Will to have a long talk about why she would do that. If she chose Will over Jack, then she would not talk to Jack. He could always go back to his whores.

She would take it one day at a time; all she knew for sure right now was that fate had a cruel way of playing games with her life and that she didn't like it. She stumbled up the last steps and into the light. As the light hit her eyes, she swayed to one side alarmingly. Perhaps the rum had not worn off as much as she thought. As the blackness crept into her vision she had her last thoughts before she passed out.

The world was cruel.

Emotions are worse.

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A/N2: I'mmm back! For those of you who have read Saving Sparrow before, I'm redoing it all. Rewriting and editing, the works. For those of you who have never seen this story before, it takes place directly after DMC. Welcome to the world of Saving Sparrow. So everyone knows, I'm looking for a Beta reader. Check my authors page for details:) I'll be updating around once a week hopefully.

Reviewers get a lolly pop!:)


	2. Confrontation

Disclaimer: It all belongs to Disney.

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A bright ray of sunshine was what initially woke Elizabeth's muddled and hazy mind up. She hadn't opened her eyes yet, but she could sense the light on her face, and feel the slight heat that it brought. It was rather pleasant actually. She stirred slightly, attempting to move her body more into the line of sunshine without actually rearranging her position. A futile effort. As she stirred she felt the soft goose feather mattress shift below her as she ever so slightly changed her position and the soft cotton sheet that was covering her, slip down a few inches.

She soon realized that being slightly more in the sunshine was not helping. Her mind had started to become less hazy with sleep – something that she did not want. Sighing out loud she rolled over on the bed so she was facing the wall and curled up into a ball. She found her head had throbbed slightly when she had rolled over, for reasons she couldn't figure out. It hadn't been a pleasant throb either. She would have to get one of the maids to get her a heating pad for it later…

Elizabeth had intended that to be her last thought before drifting back off to sleep, and for the next thirty seconds or so, she believed that it was her last thought before falling asleep. Then she heard the nearby creaking of a chair and soft footfalls of someone walking closer to her. They stopped just short of her, near her head. She heard the sound of water being poured into a glass, and a quite _thunk _near her head, indicating that it had been set down on the table that rested against the bed. This time she let out a sigh of annoyance.

Those stupid maids just couldn't let her sleep could they? They always seemed to wake her up at the most inconvenient times. She heard whatever maid it was settle down into the chair again. Apparently whoever it was had something to say. Internally she debated weather to pretend to sleep or to wake up and talk to them. In the end she decided it was rude to ignore whoever it was. So she opened her eyes. She may as well get this over with.

Elizabeth stirred and stretched in her bed before rolling back over into the sunlight. She let out a loud yawn as she opened her eyes. Opening her eyes turned out to be a large error on her part. She immediately slammed them shut again, to relieve herself from the assault of the sun. She had apparently misjudged the hour of the day. The sun was never that bright early morning! Instead of the pale dawn sunlight she had been expecting, she had opened her eyed to the bright mid afternoon sunlight! As soon as her eyes had been assaulted by the sunshine, what had formally been a dull pounding in her head had intensified to a full fledged headache. It felt like she had been repeatedly been hit over the head with a bottle of rum.

"uugggghhhh" she moaned, rolling over onto her side to escape the light. Letting her eyes adjust to the light had not worked, so instead she would hide from it.

"What happened?" she mumbled into her pillow, not really expecting an answer from the maid. She had fully forgotten her intention to thank the man who had poured her a glass of water.

"Well, from what we managed to determine, you got drunk by yourself in the galley yesterday for some undetermined reason and ended up passing out on the deck of the _Ghost; _right in front of me, half the crew and Barbossa." Will said in mock cheerfulness from his place across the room.

Elizabeth rolled over and her eyes shot open as she sat up on the bed, clutching the sheet to her, desperately attempting to try to ignore the pain in her head. Okay, so there was no maid in her room. But Will was. She looked around the room, her eyes darting quickly from place to place. She was disoriented. Why wasn't she at home? Why was Will in her room? It took his words a few seconds to sink into her mind.

_The crew, Barbossa, the deck._

Suddenly her mind was a whirlwind of images from the past few weeks, and more importantly yesterday. She was on the _Ghost_, with Barbossa and a crew…sailing to save Jack from death. Most of her memory sped back into her brain after those thoughts came back; although her mind had a few gaping holes. She figured that this was what they meant when they said you never remembered everything when you were drunk. She had been drinking last night…she desperately tried to remember why…because she was upset about her life and Jack. She had not wanted to make a choice between Will and Jack, so she had chosen to simply try to drink it away. Will had found her in the dark storeroom and she had tried to pretend she hadn't been drinking; which had obviously failed seeing as how she had passed out the second they reached the sunny top deck.

She idly wondered what it was about her and sunlight. First she passed out because of her eyes not being adjusted to it, and now it gave her a pounding headache. She decided to put equal blame on the sunlight and rum. Rum…the thought sent her head spinning and she leaned over her bed and retched into a bucket that had conveniently been placed there. She was thankful for the person who had put it there in her sleep. Probably Will she mused. Speaking of Will, she looked up at him sheepishly. After all he had just seen her throw up the contents of her stomach.

He was sitting behind the desk in the far corner of what she know knew was her cabin. The first officers cabin in fact. She remembered the row she had had with Barbossa about her possessing this cabin. Will had his boots propped onto the desk in a very Jack Sparrowish way. She grimaced. She did not want to be reminded of Jack first thing when she woke up. His brown eyes bore into Elizabeth's on the bed, where she lay facing him. She recognized the anger, hurt, confusion and betrayal in his eyes. She also say something new there. Stubbornness. He was not going to make this easy for her. She rolled over away from him, shutting her eyes tightly again which lessened the pain of her hangover considerably.

After all, everyone had been extremely nice to her since the sinking of the _Pearl_. They had given her, her own cabin so she could have her privacy; instead of sleeping with the rest of the crew. The whole crew dotted on her and Barbossa left her in peace (shocker). Will had given her weeks to come forward and talk to him about the Jack incident, why she was being so quite. She had a feeling he thought he knew what it had been about, but he wanted to hear it from her mouth. She had taken everything graciously of course, but giving her privacy had evidentially not helped. Instead of stopping her grieving over what she had done, she was now getting drunk by herself and wallowing in self pity.

"Well?" He asked harshly, cutting through her silent thoughts.

Elizabeth rolled over in bed again at the shock of hearing him talk and the tone of voice he had used. One hand flew up to her forehead as her headache registered the roll over movement and the pain increased a tenfold. She had thought one of the crewmen were in here, not Will. She had barley seen him these last few weeks on the ship, she had not expected for him to turn up in her cabin. He had been busy being chummy with Barbossa. However despite the fact that she bad barley seen him, she kept her eyes squinted tightly shut and would not look at him, due to the small problem her eyes seemed to be having dealing with sunlight.

Her thoughts had come back to her from last night, along with the one perfectly clear thing she could remember.

_The world was cruel._

_Emotions were worse._

She still agreed with that.

"Bugger." She said groaned aloud into the tense silence which did not waver. Her eyes opened when he did not immediately answer. She found her eyes drinking in the sight of him, which she had rarely seen close up for a few weeks. His white shirt was worn but clean, and his brown breeches looked to be sporting a newly mended rip. She wondered who mended them for him. Best of all was his face, now more tan then ever before from the prolonged sun exposure. He looked more like a Pirate now. She wasn't sure weather to consider this a bad thing or a good thing.

"Bugger is right Elizabeth. Now pray tell me, why did you feel the urge to drink rum all by yourself yesterday and then scare me half to death by fainting? I've given you weeks to talk to me about everything, and you haven't. So now I'm going to talk to you, while you listen, and then I want an explanation; clear?" His voice was cold and hard; she could tell from the look in his eyes that he was not going to let this go without an explanation.

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A/N: This is a two part chapter, this is part one. Part two will be up next sunday. :) Hope you enjoy!

Review?


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